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Foote: NISH waves bye to Porter Stadium

When the New Iberia's Yellow Jackets take on the visiting Comeaux Spartans on Friday night at Lloyd G. Porter Stadium, it's going to be the final regular season game the Jackets ever play in the old stadium that has been their home since 1950.

When the New Iberia's Yellow Jackets take on the visiting Comeaux Spartans on Friday night at Lloyd G. Porter Stadium, it's going to be the final regular season game the Jackets ever play in the old stadium that has been their home since 1950.

That's the plan anyway. A $50-million bond issue was passed last fall to provide improvements in school facilities throughout Iberia Parish. About $8 million of that is for new on-campus, turf stadiums for both New Iberia and Westgate High Schools.

So the days of sharing Lloyd G. Porter Stadium are over. The days of avoiding conflicts in schedules between multiple schools sharing a field appear to be over. The days of getting on a bus and moving training equipment to play a home game will now be a thing of the past.

"It's going to be a great thing," said Rick Hutson, who has been New Iberia's head football coach since 1999. "I can't tell you how many hours I've spent over the last 15 years on the phone trying to get schedules to work out.

"I can promise you this, once it actually happens, I'm never going to play another Thursday night home game. We may have to on the road, but not at home. We're very excited about this."

Meanwhile, the reaction is very different for former Daily Iberian sports editor Glenn Quebedeaux, who covered the Jackets in the old stadium from 1977-91.

"I'm very sad to hear that, very sad," said Quebedeaux, who is now an insurance agent. "To me, that's like a Cubs fans hearing that they're moving to a new stadium. That's what I would equate this to.

"The absolute best memories of my sports writing career were in that stadium. Friday night football was something you really looked forward to back then. It was a great atmosphere there."

Quebedeaux grew up and still lives in Crowley, but when he makes it over to New Iberia, he can't help but visit.

"When I go back to New Iberia for any reason, I pass by the old stadium and remember that stadium and all the great games," he said. "I had a blast covering NISH in that stadium. That was the heyday. I was blessed to be able to cover NISH at its best."

For many, the memories begin with the great Jackets' players – from Johnny Hector to LeRoy Etienne to Corey Raymond to Mark Roman.

And while Quebedeaux agrees, he quickly points out that the most memorable aspect of Porter Stadium in that era was actually the public address announcer.

Cliff Aucoin, who was later elected major of New Iberia in 1992 and again in 1996 before dying of cancer in 1997, was one of a kind.

It was real simple with Aucoin. The home fans loved him and the visiting fans hated him.

Literally, remembers Quebedeaux.

"I had one coach's wife tell me one time that she wanted to shoot him," he said. "Opposing coaches just hated him. It was great for the home crowd and it made Friday nights a lot of fun for me, but he really irritated the visiting fans."

Aucoin's style was to build up the "Yellow Jackets," which he said loudly in a unique, gravelly voice each him and downplay the visitors in a whisper so low that sometimes it could hardly be heard.

It was often something like this, "End of the first quarter, and it's YELLOW JACKETS 7 and tigers nothing."

While that era may have supplied many with their fondest memories of the Jackets, others have recollections that go all the way back to the beginning in 1950.

In fact, Charles Menard was the player who scored the first touchdown – a 48-yard TD run – for New Iberia in that first season at Porter Stadium 64 years ago. Menard is still alive, and Hutson said efforts are being made to try to get him to the game to be honored Friday.

Personally, my first memory of Lloyd G. Porter was back in 1984. Acadiana defeated New Iberia 26-21 in Scott during the regular season, but the Jackets got revenge to the tune of 55-22 at home in the state quarterfinals.

"Those NISH-Acadiana games are the ones I remember the most," Quebedeaux said. "Those were wars."

The next week, Quebedeaux witnessed something he didn't think possible when Neville came to New Iberia and swamped the Jackets 42-0 in the semifinals.

"That was the most dominating team I ever saw in that stadium," Quebedeaux said.

These days, Hutson's Jackets are most focused on trying to finish strong and nail down that first district win of the season. The last four years produced the most wins the program has enjoyed since those glory days of the early 1980s, but NISH is undergoing a bit of a rebuilding season in 2014.

By next season, Hutson is hoping to take another step forward playing on turf in his backyard.

Currently progress is being slowed by a legal dispute between contractors.

Some can't wait until that's resolved. Others, like Quebedeaux, would just as soon see the Jackets played at Lloyd G. Porter Stadium forever.